Saints can’t dig out of early hole

Thursday

Feb 7, 2013 at 3:15 AM

By JOHN DOYLEjdoyle@fosters.com

DOVER — It says something about the St. Thomas Aquinas High School boys hockey team that they were able to get back into Saturday’s game against Division I heavyweight Manchester Memorial after falling behind early. It also says something that the Saints were not satisfied with a 7-4 loss.

The Saints’ hopes of finishing with a top-four seed in the upcooming D-I tournament took a hit with the loss.

“There’s positives and negatives about everything,” St. Thomas coach Andrew Leach said. “But this probably wasn’t the best effort on our part.”

A wild first period saw the Saints (8-5-1) fall behind by three goals, a gap they closed to one by the end of the frame. The Saints battled back again in the third period but were unable to find the equalizer.

“When we play like we can play, we do fine,” St. Thomas senior co-captain Garrett Palmer said. “But the penalties kill us. We do it to ourselves.”

The loss came exactly one week after St. Thomas earned a 4-3 overtime win over the Crusaders (10-3) when the two clubs met in Manchester. It also snapped a three-game winning streak for the Saints.

“We weren’t doing the things that got us to win three in a row,” said Leach. “We got back to our old ways. Yeah, they battled back with a couple goals, but when a team like that is big and strong, it’s hard for some of our guys to defend.”

The Saints had trouble staying out of the penalty box, as three of Memorial’s goals came on the power play. Memorial was called for nine penalties, but St. Thomas managed just one goal with a man advantage.

Freshman Ty Turgeon scored twice just 1:06 apart late in the first period as St. Thomas trimmed a three-goal deficit to one. Turgeon’s first goal came just 15 seconds after the Crusaders made it 4-1, and was the second sequence in the frame where three goals were scored in rapid succession.

“We didn’t have our strongest game tonight, but we played good as a team,” Turgeon said. “It didn’t really click on the ice.”

The goals were the first of Turgeon’s varsity career. He also picked up two assists. His second goal came on a power play.

“He’s been knocking on the door,” Leach said. “He’s had a couple of breakaways and it’s good for him to bury it. Hopefully that will open up the doors for more goals from him.”

Memorial took a 2-1 lead as the teams combined for three tallies in 58 seconds. Jacob Boylan put the Crusaders ahead 1-0 at the 3:24 mark, but T.J. Boulanger tied it at 3:58. Memorial got that lead right back when Andrew Frapplea lit the lamp at 4:22.

“St. Thomas is well coached and they come to play,” Memorial coach Mark Putney said. “We got some secondary scoring tonight from a couple of kids who we haven’t seen put the puck in the net. That was huge.”

Manchester led 4-3 after the first period, then the teams played a scoreless middle frame. Memorial once again made it a two-goal game when Brendan Sullivan scored a power-play goal 56 seconds in.

Glen Wiswell scored at 3:28 with assistance from Niall Foster and Turgeon to get the Saints back in it, but Bryce Jacob ended any hope of a comeback with Memorial’s final two goals, which came at 7:32 and 12:05.

St. Thomas goalie Zane Angelopoulos made 47 saves. The Saints are at Concord on Saturday.